Granny Mouse is blessed with many beautiful flowers and none as beautiful as their roses. Guests often tell our team how much they admire the displays of our roses, which are amongst some of the most memorable in the Midlands.

Did you know that roses are often named after famous or important people?

Interestingly, the fashion of naming roses after people started at the beginning of 19th century when breeding company, Jackson and Perkins named their first rose Dorothy Perkins. This rose was not named after a celebrity but rather after a granddaughter of one of the owners. The rose turned out to be a huge success, winning a prize at the Royal National Rose Society in 1908. As a result, Dorothy Perkins became famous overnight without having to do anything!

Since then, many rose propagators have named their creations after family members. So, if you come across a rose named after a person but no famous face comes to mind, you are probably looking at a rose named after a family member or friend, and not a celebrity.

Roses that are named after famous people are typically some of the most special though.
After all, celebrities can be picky when their reputations are at stake.

Some roses named after famous South Africans include:

• The Madiba’ rose, which is a fiery orange-red, produced in abundance on a vigorous, healthy bush.

• The Archbishop Desmond Tutu bears full, nostalgic, cup-shaped, long-lasting blooms with firm petals. It grows into a loosely branched shrub that sprouts flowering stems from base to tip from spring into winter. A portion of the price of each rose is donated to the Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, of which the Archbishop and Mrs Tutu are patrons.

• The Candice Morgan, named after deaf community ambassador and former Miss Deaf SA, who raises awareness of the issues faced by the deaf community. ‘Candice’ is a fairytale variety with the typical flower shape and distinctive perfume of the romantic roses of yesteryear. The colour is a blend of deep cream and pink with a faint striping. This graceful bush reaches between hip and chest height.

• The Fordyce rose, which is named after this famous Comrades athlete. Fittingly, it is hardy, drought tolerant and disease resistant. Each cream-white based petal has tones of pink that become more concentrated towards the edges. Ludwig’s Rose Farm is one of 130 Parkrun venues across the country.

• The Thuli Madonsela, which honours the former public protector. This hybrid tea rose carries its two-toned fragrant pink blooms in floribunda-like clusters. With its glossy, bright-green, disease-resistant leaves, it grows vigorously to chest height.

Then there are the beautiful blooms that are named for international celebrities:

Elizabeth Arden has a beautiful pink double-bloom hybrid tea rose named after her. This rose has stunning pink petals with darker pink edges.

Audrey Hepburn has a soft apple-blossom-pink hybrid tea rose that is named after her.

A stunning cream-color hybrid tea rose with pink edges and a mild and fruity fragrance is named after the late Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly.

Two years after his death, fans of Freddie Mercury raised £2,000 to create and name a new variety of rose in his honour – yellow roses were his favourite.

Even the Royal family has flowers named after them. Diana, Princess of Wales, has a peach / pink hybrid tea rose that is reminiscent of a sunset named after her. This delicate blend of blush pink has a darker pink colouring on the outer edges of the petals.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have given their name to an apricot-coloured rose which fades into white.

Vegetables—we all know that we have to eat them. But for those who really don’t like them, it can be really difficult to incorporate them into your daily servings. We’ve all heard it before, “eat your greens because they’re good for you” (thanks, mom!).

But how exactly are they good for us? Vegetables are excellent sources of various vitamins and nutrients that the body needs. Many have actually been labelled as super foods. Examples are carotenoids and folates. But, that’s not all that they’re important for. Vegetables are a rich source of fibre which is extremely important for gut health and the gastrointestinal tract as well as promoting the growth of good gut bacteria in our bodies.

Making vegetables appetizing to those who are not naturally convinced of their goodness can be tricky. Rather than relying on butter, cheese, and sugar — which can make anything taste good but are not necessarily very good for one’s health — it’s best to embrace the techniques that maintain the nutritional integrity of vegetables. Some of the best tricks include using veggies in meat-centric dishes to replace the meat, so that the overall dish is familiar and appetizing, as well as seasoning and preparing vegetables the same way you would meat.

To help make sure that you hit your veggie intake, culinary artist Theo Mannie of Granny Mouse Country House and Spa shares some of his best vegetarian recipes. Even if you profess to be a carnivore who hates “rabbit food”, we are certain that you will be converted and, most certainly, come back for more.

Roasted Butternut Salad

300g butternut, peeled and chopped into bite sizes
20g pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
2 large sticks of cinnamon
10g pistachio nuts
100g cream cheese
20g mixed micro herbs
20ml Italian salad dressing

Method:

Place the pistachio nuts in a food processor until the end result resembles dust. Pour in the cream cheese and blend for another 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag then chill.

Place the butternut into a roasting tray together with the cinnamon, cover with foil and bake at 100ºC for 21 min.

In the meantime, lay the micro herbs in the centre of the plate. Sprinkle on the toasted pumpkin seeds. Pipe scatted dots of the cream cheese. Do the same with the salad dressing. Randomly place the butternut over the micro herbs.

Spicy Tomato, Mushroom and Olive Penne

1 red chilli, chopped
300g button mushrooms, sliced
100g pitted black olives
1 can chopped tomatoes
200g penne
15g garlic, crushed
20g butter
1tsp sugar
1tsp vinegar
150g feta
20g fresh rocket
Salt and pepper

Method:

Boil the pasta, strain and cool before setting aside.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter on high heat. Add the mushrooms and olives. Sauté for about 4 minutes or until the mushrooms become golden brown.

Pour in the tomato and garlic and continue to sauté for a minute before reducing the heat. Pour in the vinegar and add the sugar. Once the tomato has cooked out, add the pasta into the sauce. Cook for a further 3 minutes and season to taste.

Once plated, scatter both the rocket and feta over the pasta

Serves 2